If you're still building your gunboats around missiles, I'm pretty sure you're doing it wrong.

By Biophysical, in X-Wing

8 minutes ago, defkhan1 said:

Hah, I wasn't making a conclusion, just an observation. Maybe we've been underestimating the effectiveness of cheap missile Gunboats.


Just Harpoon and LRS. I guess the Reload and SLAM action are worth the 2 pt over the Scimitar. And Quickdraw had a standard loadout of VI, FCS, Lightweight Frame. Excited to see how it does in the cut today. It was Nam-my from Kessel Run flying it.

Yeah, I definitely see them as an easy 2 point upgrade from Scimitars. I hadn't looked at them too hard as cheap carriers, just because cheap carriers haven't had much success historically, but maybe they've got the pieces. I'll be happy if they have a lot of good builds.

Quickdraw is just a great ship in any squad.

Edited by Biophysical

He's flying them at 22pts. So just lrs and a harpoon. That's the cost a b wing. They might be a little underpriced with slam and reload at that cost.

That being said. Austin was a chaotic meta. He's a good player, but it's hard to say what would do good in that soup will continue to do well elsewhere.

1 hour ago, Arkanta974 said:

http://meta-wing.com/ships/50/squadrons?

Well look like a bad start for Rho Squadron Canon Gunboat :(

Surprised everyone is using Karsabi and not literally anything else... even a mini flight of tie fighters. You've got 36 points, that's even Ps 11ATC/EU Vader with a bid, or Vessery, or Stele defender, or even a palp shuttle, or a super light stridan, etc.

The named pilots and the OS-1 title don't seem to be worth it for now.

Perhaps at a later point there will come some upgrade that has some synergy with their abilities or with the OS-1 title.

Until then, we will see one or two Nus and Rhos, if any, with the XG-1 title.

16 hours ago, defkhan1 said:

I guess the Reload and SLAM action are worth the 2 pt over the Scimitar

More the durability, I'd think. A 2-point upgrade which swaps 2 points of hull for 3 shield tokens is a pretty good deal, putting you on a par with an Integrated Astromech T-70 for toughness. The reload action is nice to have purely because it's free, but a scimitar at the same price would have extra munitions, which covers the job nicely.

I got fly me some more of those little 'boats that could over weekend. Am a firm believer they hit like a truck, with HLC and linked battery (had crackshot); I tried them both with Vessery (Play well with his ability and LRS) and then I tried them with Kylo swapping out HCL for Manger and Jamming beam, which also worked but i think Kylo needs faster wingmen (though Mangler did get to drop Poe to PS0)

In all the matches I play against Dash + (Another Ace).

My thoughts? They do work; Dash went from full health down into hull with one volley................then i had to turn around.......and Dash was gone. He then HLC'ed my babies :(

How I fixed it? Someone here suggested Lighting Reflexes; so i tried that. It did the trick, i was able to push more damage through in two turns than i would have done with crackshot. They crippled dash again in first attack using linked battery and a focus. I was then able to swing round (that dial is very white and green) and blast again using the TL to push damage; killing Dash. (Vessery helped by stripping tokens, and his Tractor Beam)

Edited by the1hodgy

Harpoon missiles have some favors for Nu Squadron !

I'm surprised to not see any Cruise Missile build ! :o

44 minutes ago, the1hodgy said:

How I fixed it? Someone here suggested Lighting Reflexes; so i tried that. It did the trick, i was able to push more damage through in two turns than i would have done with crackshot. They crippled dash again in first attack using linked battery and a focus. I was then able to swing round (that dial is very white and green) and blast again using the TL to push damage; killing Dash. (Vessery helped by stripping tokens, and his Tractor Beam)

I wish Reload reloaded also spent EPTs. :(

I guess Crackshot works best against token stackers, while Lightning Reflexes work best against health tanks.

2 minutes ago, Arkanta974 said:

Harpoon missiles have some favors for Nu Squadron !

I'm surprised to not see any Cruise Missile build ! :o

For just one more point Harpoons are so much more flexible. And the Gunboat can't even hope to get the 5 dice attack with its red 4 straight unless you are running LRS, in which case you are on single mods and even more easily avoided.

13 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

I wish Reload reloaded also spent EPTs. :(

I guess Crackshot works best against token stackers, while Lightning Reflexes work best against health tanks.

My gut feel is that LR is going to do more damage than Crack Shot, on HLC Linked Rhos specifically. It's likely to get you one more SHOT, which should be hitting for 3.5 damage minus their evades. EVen against the tankiest token tankers in the game, that should be pushing one damage through, and in the right context it should be gaining you more than one turn of shooting.

16 minutes ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

For just one more point Harpoons are so much more flexible. And the Gunboat can't even hope to get the 5 dice attack with its red 4 straight unless you are running LRS, in which case you are on single mods and even more easily avoided.

If Nu Squadron were a point less, cruise missiles would be worth a look - because a cruise missile/long range scanner armed Nu would be 20 points, allowing 5 ships in a squad - impressive even with the relatively restrictive need for a speed 3 'attack run'. Sadly (probably intentionally) they aren't, and if you're limited to 4 ships, you might as well spend those points on upgrading cruise missiles to harpoon missiles.

As it is, the only 5-ship squads you can field are Jamming Beam, Tractor Beam, Flechette Torpedo, Scrambler Missile, Seismic Torpedo and XX-23 S-Thread Tracer.

20 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

I wish Reload reloaded also spent EPTs. :(

I guess Crackshot works best against token stackers, while Lightning Reflexes work best against health tanks.

Thing is, token stackers are generally fast enough and manoeuvrable enough to dodge arcs of fire quite efficiently and get beside/behind you.

If you get a shot with a couple of linked battery heavy laser cannons, crack shot is nice but probably not the end of the world if you don't have it; it's still a heavy laser cannon.

On the other hand, trying to shake a TIE interceptor, Protectorate, or Dash Rendar off your backside once it's slipped past you is going to be very difficult without Lighting reflexes.

Edited by Magnus Grendel
3 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

My gut feel is that LR is going to do more damage than Crack Shot, on HLC Linked Rhos specifically. It's likely to get you one more SHOT, which should be hitting for 3.5 damage minus their evades. EVen against the tankiest token tankers in the game, that should be pushing one damage through, and in the right context it should be gaining you more than one turn of shooting.

Well, it's a problem that the round you get to turn around with Lightning Reflexes you don't get to perform any action since it gives you the stress token. That lowers your damage output with HLC.

Would Advanced SLAM help with this? Can I SLAM, then use Advanced SLAM to do one action, then Lightning Reflexes to turn around? Or by the time that Advanced SLAM resolved, Lightning Reflexes would have missed its opportunity?

1 minute ago, Azrapse said:

Well, it's a problem that the round you get to turn around with Lightning Reflexes you don't get to perform any action since it gives you the stress token. That lowers your damage output with HLC.

Would Advanced SLAM help with this? Can I SLAM, then use Advanced SLAM to do one action, then Lightning Reflexes to turn around? Or by the time that Advanced SLAM resolved, Lightning Reflexes would have missed its opportunity?

I found the round i turned around that was the ideal time to spend the TL, I didn't spend it turn before as i know i needed some mods

and then i was able to gundown the next target. (which was Poe)

LRS works well within my list due to Vessery; but advanced Slam would be a bad choice; I have used the missiles 'boats and find that advance slam works better for them over LRS.

12 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

My gut feel is that LR is going to do more damage than Crack Shot, on HLC Linked Rhos specifically. It's likely to get you one more SHOT, which should be hitting for 3.5 damage minus their evades. EVen against the tankiest token tankers in the game, that should be pushing one damage through, and in the right context it should be gaining you more than one turn of shooting.

That was my thinking when i saw the original post further back; the time on target is better than 1 additional damage.

34 minutes ago, Azrapse said:

Well, it's a problem that the round you get to turn around with Lightning Reflexes you don't get to perform any action since it gives you the stress token. That lowers your damage output with HLC.

Would Advanced SLAM help with this? Can I SLAM, then use Advanced SLAM to do one action, then Lightning Reflexes to turn around? Or by the time that Advanced SLAM resolved, Lightning Reflexes would have missed its opportunity?

You certainly can do both, but then you're not shooting your HLC...

E: and losing your focus is painful, for sure. Takes average damage output down from 3.51 to 2.46, but even that is probably more than you get from Crack. It's not that clear cut though, so it really becomes a question of whether you think you can survive long enough to make LR pay off.

I'd usually expect to, but the first time I tested this combo, I managed to roll 11 green dice and get 2 symbols with the Gunboat in the opening round, at which point, it would have been better with Crack Shot.

Edited by thespaceinvader
2 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

You certainly can do both, but then you're not shooting your HLC...

Doh! :rolleyes:

19 hours ago, defkhan1 said:

Hah, I wasn't making a conclusion, just an observation. Maybe we've been underestimating the effectiveness of cheap missile Gunboats.


Just Harpoon and LRS. I guess the Reload and SLAM action are worth the 2 pt over the Scimitar. And Quickdraw had a standard loadout of VI, FCS, Lightweight Frame. Excited to see how it does in the cut today. It was Nam-my from Kessel Run flying it.

Any updates in how he did?

1 hour ago, Goseki1 said:

Any updates in how he did?

He lost the Top8 game against a Fenn, Talonbane, Thweek list.

8 minutes ago, Kharnete said:

He lost the Top8 game against a Fenn, Talonbane, Thweek list.

Top 8 for a largely untested ship on the table is a solid result.

1 hour ago, the1hodgy said:

Top 8 for a largely untested ship on the table is a solid result.

I can't speak for the player, but the Gunboat certainly has had the opportunity to be extensively tested because its dial was revealed quite early. Vassal or proxying for at least a couple months were certainly possible.

1 minute ago, Biophysical said:

I can't speak for the player, but the Gunboat certainly has had the opportunity to be extensively tested because its dial was revealed quite early. Vassal or proxying for at least a couple months were certainly possible.

True enough; but I don't know what % do/don't Vassal or proxying. So the sample size would be largely unknown.

I'm not sure you can find a better 22 points to spend than a Nu Sqd. with LRS and a Harpoon.

8 minutes ago, Jo Jo said:

I'm not sure you can find a better 22 points to spend than a Nu Sqd. with LRS and a Harpoon.

Omega Leader with A Score To Settle.

Cruise Missiles are just...bad on gunboats

I used them because of point limitations and yeah its so unwieldy its not even funny. You HAVE to do 3 speeds to get a decent attack out of them, which means you cannot possibly do anything more than hit-and-run tactics. Problem with hit and run tactics is gunboats arent quite fast enough to fire outside of R1 then zip past the target and be out of range next turn. Only time i manged to get away was when a 3Turn right into a 3Turn left snaked around some rocks so they couldnt point that way anyway.

Harpoons would enable you to fire at any speed for the same dice and the condition.

Nah i still think Cruises are literally only viable on Vader. I know people run them on a few other things but i just find it so hard to land a 4-5 die attack unless its vader. (let me rephrase that: land a 4-5 die attack AND have mods for it)

Jake can also work Cruise I think. Being able to focus>boost>lock is fun with them.